A Moral PANIC! In the House

Last week, I wrote about how a speaker at the 2023 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) declared that "transgenderism must be eradicated from public life entirely!" It was a statement greeted with cheers from the assembled crowd. 

Republican state governors and legislatures across the country have proposed bills, enacted laws or signed orders that are part of a major offensive against transgender Americans.  

That offensive has now reached the national level as the Republican led House of Representatives is considering two bills"   

HR 734, the Protecting Women and Girls in Sports Act 

This bill seeks to ban trans girls from participating in sports.

The moral arbiters of the Republican Party claims this bill is necessary to protect women and girls in sports. A noble goal that is, I admit except this bill does absolutely diddly god damm squat about real problems girls and women face in sports:

• pay disparities
• harassment 
• sexual assault 
• discrimination

No, the bill is not designed to protect any one but to attack transgender women. The Republicans do not give the slightest fuck about protecting women and girls in sports. 

The one-page bill stipulates that “sex shall be recognized based solely on a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth.” 

It does not explain how schools should determine a student’s reproductive biology. Are we suppose to be OK with schools inspecting our children's genitals?  

  

HR 5, the Parents Bill of Rights Act

Among the disturbing details of this particular legislation is to strip LGBTQ youth of the right to speak to school staff without parental notification.

For young people seeking guidance on an issue that if revealed may expose those youth to all sorts of abuse from their parents, the Republican Party think those parents need to be told.  

If LGBTQ youth are left with no outlet for counsel or guiadance out of fear of emotional physical harm, left to fend for themselves with no support, they may spin into a spiral of depression and self destructive behavior including suicide.  

Parental rights have become a catch-all to stop ANYTHING that conservatives don't like. 

In the hearings on these two bills, Democrats came prepared with: 

• research
• statistics 
• facts 
• anecdotal evidence from LGBTQ people
• studies by medical professionals  

Republicans did not counter any of that with any documented factual evidence of their own.  No, just a lot of egregious Bible thumping and moral outrage over...

What exactly? 

There are only about 50 openly transgender athletes participating in college-level sports. Hardly a number worth national action at the Federal level.

Or as Rep. Mark Takano (D-Ca.) said, “This is just a false sense of moral panic being ginned up by a political party that seeks to use trans kids as pawns to gain power."   

A segment of American society, American society is being marginalized and being told they are lesser than everyone else.

This cannot and must not be tolerated! 

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BLOG BIDNESS: 

• Another post coming later today about SPORTSBALL!
• The Tuesday TV Touchbase is up tomorrow with TV shows from the universes of Star Wars and Marvel.
• Wednesday returns to politics with a new Lying Fuck Bastard!